


Stellar Downpour

by timeisweird



Series: snapshots [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeisweird/pseuds/timeisweird
Summary: It was a dark and stormy night.Thunder in the background mixed with the roar of the rain drenching everything, and this made things exceptionally confusing, since Donna was standing in the console room of a blue box anchored somewhere in the time vortex and was very much not outside.





	Stellar Downpour

**Author's Note:**

> betaed by mageofmind, thanks!! 
> 
> i wrote this in an hour during math class. gotta love the graphing of rational functions.
> 
> also i rarely ever write in past tense, so if anything's awkward, please excuse that.

It was a dark and stormy night. 

Thunder in the background mixed with the roar of the rain drenching everything, and this made things exceptionally confusing, since Donna was standing in the console room of a blue box anchored somewhere in the time vortex and was very much not outside.  
  
It had been going well for more than a few minutes. The Doctor had dragged her into the console room not a moment after she had woken up from a well earned nap, babbling on about some feature of their beautiful ship that they had finally managed to cajole into functioning properly. "She's been stubborn about it for centuries, but listen – I think you'll love this," they said, careful not to reveal what exactly it was they were talking about.  
  
Once in the console room, they had let go of her hand and left her by the railing as they bounded up to the controls. They were full of energy as they typed things and turned dials and flicked switches, making it all a rather dramatic production. The press of a single key to 'activate' what they had set up was a bit underwhelming, but what had followed was anything but.  
  
The ceiling of the ship seemed to melt away, ribbed metal and the top of the glass rotor disappearing into the void of deep space. Stars twinkled brightly, and in the distance, Donna swore she could see nebulae of so many colors she couldn't keep track.  
  
"Oh Doctor," she found herself saying, "that's–"  
  
"Brilliant?" they supplied. "Why, thank you." They flicked a few more switches on the console, which had dimmed its eerie glow to reduce the interference of light, and their point of view in the scene above rushed through space towards the nebulae, panning around the stardust like an Earthen documentary.  
  
She tore her gaze from the not-ceiling to look at the Doctor. "Are you piloting the ship right now? Is that how you're doin' that?"  
  
They glanced up at the nebulae. "Oh, no, it's just a simulation, not a real view. I'm using the ceiling of the console room as a... projector, of sorts." They absently pressed a few more buttons, and the projection changed to a view of a cloudy night sky. Somewhere on Earth, Donna thought. "If you were to take a look outside the doors right now, you'd have seven seconds to look upon the raw time vortex before the forcefield failed and you were ripped out of the TARDIS by the time winds to be ultimately torn apart by them as well."  
  
Donna slowly looked back to the Doctor. They winced. "Best not to dwell on it, I always say."  
  
Other than that, it had been rather nice watching the replicated sky. She leaned back against the railing, while the Doctor sat down on the crash seat and put their feet up on the console – a habit she usually scolded them about, but she'd let them have it this time.  
  
After a time, there was the sound of distant thunder, and Donna flinched as she felt a few raindrops land on her cheek. Her brows furrowed as she automatically lifted a hand to wipe away the water away. "What the..." is all she managed to say, before there was a flash of lightning across the sky and the few drops turned into a downpour.  
  
The Doctor yelped and jumped to their feet at going from cozy and content to completely drenched. "Doctor!" Donna yelled, futilely holding her hands above her head as if that would keep her wet hair dry.  
  
"I know, I know!" they retorted, immediately working at the controls. "I'm trying – why is it – it's not supposed to do this!"  
  
"Who cares about _why_ , just get the rain to quit it! This blouse was expensive!"  
  
The Doctor paused, ran their hand through their sopping hair to clear their vision, all to glance astonishedly at her. "But – but it's just water, don't you wash your clothes?"  
  
_"Not like this!"_ Her hair and makeup were ruined, and honestly, the Doctor had no say in this. How they had jumped out of their seat at the rain reminded her of her friend's cat, who refused to touch a bath even when tempted with endless treats. "And what, like you _like_ this?"  
  
They rubbed at their neck. "Well, definitely not, but–"  
  
"No, no, no, I don't want to hear it, until you turn the rain off!" And this time she made great use of her 'get off your arse and fix the problem _you_ caused right now or I'll graffiti your precious box' look.  
  
The Doctor's eyes widened, and she could see them swallow nervously. "Right, yeah. Turn the rain off,” they said, before throwing themself at the console again. A couple switches and levers and electrical shocks later, the rain had begun to die down, before stopping completely.  
  
Donna sighed, and pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Thank you," she grumbled.  
  
The Doctor laughed breathlessly, but she could see right through the attempt to lighten the atmosphere. "I think there's a _slight_ malfunction in the, uh, block transfer components of the simulation..."  
  
"You _think?"_ She made a show of wringing out the water from the hem of her shirt, which fell below the grating and caused some complex circuit that had so far managed to avoid the rain to spark and short out. The Doctor looked painfully at the smoke rising from the broken circuit.  
  
"I'll get a mop," they said, resigned. "And a hair dryer."

**Author's Note:**

> im on tumblr @ timeisweird. feel free to chat with me about my works or doctor who, or prompt me, etc.
> 
> yes, the title is based on panic at the disco's "northern downpour."


End file.
